Leontios of Byzantium

Leontios of Byzantium (655-15 February 706) was the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 695 to 698, succeeding Justinian II of Byzantium and preceding Tiberius III of Byzantium.

Biography
Leontios was born in 655 to the House of Leon, and he became the Strategos of the Theme of Anatolia in the Byzantine Empire. In 686 he led Byzantine forces against the Umayyad Caliphate in Georgia and Armenia, carrying the war further into Azerbaijan and Dagestan. He forced Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan to make concessions to the Byzantines, but when war was renewed in 692 at the Battle of Sebastopolis, many of the Slavic troops in his army deserted him for the Arabs and he was defeated. Emperor Justinian II of Byzantium imprisoned him, angry at the loss of his army, but in 695 he released him and gave him command of the Theme of Hellas. Leontios organized a revolt and seized power, and he ordered his admiral Tiberius to seize Carthage. This attempt failed, and Tiberius returned to Constantinople with his fleet and besieged the capital. Tiberius seized power for himself, but both Leontios and Tiberius were imprisoned when Justinian retook power in 706 and both were beheaded.